We welcome you as a lab instructor in Stat 235 for Fall Term 2012. The following information will be important to you as the lab instructor:
All labs in Stat 235 will be held in PC labs in Windows 7 environment. You will be using Excel 2010. You should check your lab room before the first lab session to get familiar with the computer interface and projectors.
Labs in Stat 235 will start on Monday, September 10, 2012. The Introductory Lab (Doing Statistics with Excel) will be discussed in the first week of labs, September 10- September 14. The Introductory Lab should be treated as a reference material. We do not expect the students to get familiar with all the Excel features discussed there in the first lab session.
Before students start working on any particular lab assignment, they should first get familiar with the lecture material and with the lab instructions corresponding to the lab assignment. Students are responsible for keeping a backup of their work both on the AICT campus file system and on a reliable portable data storage device (floppy disk, ZIP disk or USB Flash Drive) . If they keep their data on a floppy only and the floppy gets damaged or corrupted, they will not be excused!
For each of the five labs in Stat 235, there are two types of instructional materials: Lab Instructions and Lab Assignments. Lab instructions are supposed to help the students to develop and practice the skills necessary to solve the problems in the corresponding lab assignments.
The students will have two weeks to work on each assignment. You should give an introduction to the topics of the current lab in the first week only. You should spend approximately 15-20 minutes at the start of the lab explaining the lab assignment problems in the context of Excel implementation.
There are five lab assignments in the course. The due dates are provided in the following table:
Please note that there is only one week for lab 5 and lab exams will begin one week earlier. Easter Monday makes it impossible to schedule lab exam in the last week of classes so the exams will also begin one week earlier than usual.
A student who cannot complete a lab assignment because of an incapacitating illness, severe domestic affliction or other compelling reasons can apply to their course instructor for a transfer of the weight of the missed lab to the final exam. The application should be made within 48 hours of the missed lab assignment due date.
Late or misplaced lab assignments will not be graded and will result in a zero recorded for that assignment.
You should pick up the lab assignments next working day by noon at the latest. The solutions to the lab assignments will be posted on the Internet next working day late afternoon. The assignments should be handed in to the wooden box outside CAB 331/335 by the due date. There are 40 slots in the box, each of them labeled with the name of the lab instructor and the section number. Pick up the key to the lab assignment box from the General Office.
You will be marking the assignments in your sections. Obtain class lists from the appropriate instructors. It is very convenient to keep a copy of all your records as an Excel file. If the class list contains the lab section number for each student, you can use Excel to display only the records of the students in your section and hide other records). At the end of the term you should return the file with your grades to the course instructor.
For each lab assignment in the course, there is a detailed solution key with a marking schema in the manual. Please stick to the marking schema while marking the assignments, in this way we will maintain a uniform standard across all Stat 235 lab sections. In the last year we received many complaints from students about inconsistency in marking among lab instructors. The summaries computed at the end of the term will allow us to compare the lab sections and to flag the lab sections with unusually high average scores and low standard deviations.
Labs should be handed back in the lab in the first lab period after they are graded. It is your responsibility to record the scores for each lab assignment. Return the marked assignments to the students as soon as possible. You are not allowed to leave the marked assignments outside your office. The grades should not appear on the cover sheet (FOIPP).
You are not required to provide office hours, but give the students your e-mail address and answer systematically the received messages from the students regarding the labs. This will make it easier for students to work on their lab assignments at home and at times other than assigned laboratory hours. Though you may answer quick questions about labs, you are not required to provide detailed lab instructions through e-mail.
The lab exam will be held in the week of November 29- December 5, 2012. It will be a one-hour multiple-choice exam held in the lab rooms. Pick up the examination sheets in the General Department Office, CAB 632 (file cabinets). The copies of the exam for each section are in an envelope with the section number, your name, and exam time. Make sure that you pick up the envelope for your section. There are a few extra copies of the exam in each envelope.
Before you start distributing the exam, make sure that only students from your lab section are in the lab room. Make sure that every student gets only one copy of the exam. Do not leave any unused exam sheets in the lab room. Before the exam, put the signs about the exam outside of the lab room. All students should be writing the exam in their lab sections, please do not allow any student from other section to write the lab exam in your section.
The students should sign the attendance list (in your presence) during the exam. Do not hesitate to ask for ID if you have any doubts whether the student is in your section. You shouldn't provide any assistance in solving exam problems. You will be grading the lab exams. Record the exam scores in the class book for your section.
At the end of the term, some course instructors may ask you to calculate the overall percentage score for each student in your section. This score is based on the five lab assignments in the course. The score for the lab exam is not included in the score.
Return the class book to the Department Office, not to the course instructor. The Department Office is supposed to receive the class book from you not later than one week after the lab exam. Moreover, give a copy of the class book to the course instructor. The class book should include the raw scores of the five lab assignments, the lab exam score, and overall percentage for each student.
